Turnovers
1 quart of flour. 1 large Irish potato, boiled and mashed. 3 eggs. 1 tablespoonful of butter or lard. 2 tablespoonfuls of yeast. 1 teacup of milk. Rub the potato in the flour, then the lard and other ingredients, making it into a soft dough. Then set it to rise, at night if you wish it for breakfast next morning. Early in the morning, take off a piece of dough, the size of a biscuit, roll it out, about five inches long, then turn it about half over. When you have made up all the dough, in shapes like this, place them on a dish or board, cover with a napkin and set aside for a second rising. When ready to bake, dip a feather in water and pass over them to prevent the crust being too hard. If the dough should be sour, knead in a little soda, which will correct it.--Mrs. A. C.
Another Recipe for Turnovers. 1 quart of flour. 4 eggs. 1 tablespoonful of lard or butter. 1 tablespoonful of yeast.
Set it to rise, then make them up round and flat, greasing the upper side with lard and turning over one side. When well risen the second time, bake.--Mrs. L.
These are folded yeast rolls in the Parker House manner, not fruit pastries. The first version is a potato dough, which stays soft for days; the second is a plainer egg dough with an odd omission worth noting before you start.
- A quart of flourFlour was measured by volume in this book: a quart is about 4 cups, roughly 18 to 20 oz of all-purpose flour. Expect to hold some back, since a boiled potato varies in how much moisture it contributes.
- A teacup of milkTeacup measures in this period are variously reckoned at about a half to three-quarters of a cup, smaller than a full cup measure. Warm it to blood heat so it does not stall the yeast.
- Two tablespoonfuls of yeastThis means liquid yeast or a soft homemade barm, not modern dry granules. About 2 teaspoons of instant yeast, or a scant tablespoon of active dry, gives an equivalent rise; using two tablespoons of packaged yeast would make the rolls taste sharply of it.
- The potato is the pointMash the potato while hot and rub it into the flour before any fat or liquid goes in, as directed. The starch holds water and keeps the crumb tender; a lumpy or cold potato leaves gummy streaks through the dough.
- Overnight riseThe instruction to set it at night for breakfast assumes a cool kitchen, not a heated one. In a modern room the dough will overproof by morning, so refrigerate it after mixing and let it come back to room temperature while you shape.
- The soda correctionSourness means the overnight ferment went too far. A pinch of baking soda kneaded in neutralises the acid but does nothing for the slack, weak gluten, so treat it as a rescue rather than a step.
- The feather and waterThe recipe brushes with plain water, applied with a feather, to keep the crust from baking hard. A pastry brush works the same way; milk or egg would give a darker, firmer top than intended.
- Oven and timingNo temperature is given. Bake at 400F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are just gold and the rolls sound hollow underneath.
- The second recipe is short a liquidMrs. L.'s version lists only flour, eggs, fat and yeast, with nothing to bring it to a dough. Four eggs will not hydrate a quart of flour, so assume milk or water was understood and add it gradually to a soft dough.
- YieldThe first dough makes about 18 to 20 folded rolls at biscuit size. They are best the day they are baked, though the potato keeps them soft longer than a plain roll.
Nineteenth-century American cookbooks used "turnover" for anything folded over on itself, and here it means a soft yeast roll creased in half before its second rise, so that it opens along the fold at table. The same shape is better known now as the Parker House roll, named for the Boston hotel, but the Virginia version rests on a different trick: mashed potato worked into the flour. Potato dough is often said to have been common in Southern breakfast breads, the starch helping the crumb retain moisture, useful when the leaven was a homemade barm of uncertain strength. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named Virginia housekeepers, which is why two versions of the same roll sit side by side under different initials, one careful and one abbreviated to the point of leaving out the milk. The overnight rise and the reference to correcting sour dough with soda both belong to a kitchen where bread was raised by a kept ferment rather than a purchased packet, and where a cook expected to taste her dough in the morning and judge it.